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<title>Sometimes It's Better to Just Leave Things Alone by i_love_elliphant</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24625276">Sometimes It's Better to Just Leave Things Alone</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/i_love_elliphant/pseuds/i_love_elliphant'>i_love_elliphant</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Death Eaters, Dysfunctional Family, Family Issues, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Mentioned Harry Potter, Mentioned James Potter, Mentioned Lily Evans Potter, Mentioned Regulus Black, Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, Past Character Death, Regulus Black Deserves Better, Regulus Black Dies, Sad Sirius Black, Sirius Black Free from Azkaban, Slytherin Pride, Young Regulus Black</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 11:02:08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>759</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24625276</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/i_love_elliphant/pseuds/i_love_elliphant</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Sirius has moved back to Grimmauld Place and goes and has a look at Reggie's old room and thinks about everything that has led up to this point, and what could have been if Reg had survived.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Andromeda Black Tonks/Ted Tonks, James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Regulus Black &amp; Sirius Black</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>64</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Sometimes It's Better to Just Leave Things Alone</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Hand on the top of the bannister, knuckles turning whiter and whiter, Sirius finally pulled himself up to the top floor of Grimmauld Place. He had been up here before, of course, as he had been sleeping in his bedroom since returning to the family home, but this time he was focusing on the door opposite his own. He walked over to it, tracing his fingers over the name on the fading sign fixed to the door: Do Not Enter Without the Express Permission of Regulus Arcturus Black. Sirius closed his eyes and leaning his head against it, breathing slowly in and out. This was fine. It would be fine. He was fine.</p><p>The door opened easily and Sirius stepped in, heart hammering in his chest. He stood still and looked around. hearing a quiet thud as the door closed behind him. The room was exactly the same. The emerald and silver curtains draping the windows, the deep green bedspread covered in a thick layer of dust, the vile wallpaper that in his own room he had covered in posters and Gryffindor banners to cover up.</p><p>He circled the room, hand trailing over picture frames and posters and the odd newspaper clippings that were on the wall until he came to a photo with a chunky black mahogany frame. Two rows of students in green Quidditch robes were staring at him. They were all so stony-faced and motionless you could barely tell that this was a magical photo, except for Slughorn who was red-faced and grinning broadly at the photographer. And next to Slughorn …</p><p>Small and pale, dark hair framing a narrow face with the distinctive Black cheekbones. Sirius quickly turned away and wiped under his eye, before looking around again. The entire room was a testament to everything that Sirius had hated, and everything that he had lost. The Black family crest flaking above the bedframe screamed about everything that his family had done, everything that he had to grow up with, and everything that had been taken away from him. The collage of newspaper cuttings about the deaths of his friends, about the first rise of Voldemort, about the crimes his cousins had committed cried out to him that he had been unable to save the one thing he cared most about. Regulus had turned to the dark side and Sirius had been able to do nothing about it. And now, now he was dead.</p><p>Remus had told him what had happened, or rather what the Order thought had happened. He had got in too deep because his parents wanted to please the purist megalomaniac, and when he tried to back out he had been killed. Sirius put his head in his hands and silently sank to the floor. He had so many fond memories in here with his brother, of them laughing together about something that had happened at school, of Regulus tending to him after one of Walburga’s cruel beatings, drinking firewhisky together when they had found out about their father’s unfaithfulness. Sirius had tried so hard, he had thought that there was a chance he could get his brother out from their watchful eyes, but then ... then ... that rat happened, Azkaban happened, and the last time that he had seen his younger brother in person was during an argument at school over something Mulciber had done to one of the Muggleborns.</p><p>There was nothing that he could throw in Regulus’s bedroom, it had always been kept pristine and tidy, so Sirius just let out a hollow cry and hugged his knees. He shouldn’t have come in here, it had been a mistake. Emotions that he had been repressing for years came bubbling up to the surface and he couldn’t help it when tears started flowing silently down his sunken cheekbones.<br/>
He blamed everyone for Regulus’s death – it was Walburga’s fault, it was Orion’s fault, it was Bellatrix’s fault, it was Dumbledore’s fault, but most importantly, it was all Sirius’s fault. Every single bit of it. If only he could have been there for him more and he never would have joined. He never would have joined, they could have lived together and looked after each other, going to see James and Lily and Baby Harry, stopping off to see Ted and Andromeda with adorable little Dora, marrying whoever the fuck they damn wanted …</p><p>But there was nothing that he could do now. That was just a pipe dream, a delusion, his imagination running wild. So Sirius sat in his dead brother’s bedroom, and cried.</p>
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